Seattle Culture

The Pulse: Smells Like Spring
Surveillance debates and a Jurassic-sized surprise
It’s been warm enough to eat outside, so we did: enchiladas and cucumber salad on the deck last night, with a light chicken manure breeze for ambiance. No shade to the neighbors — it’s garden season, and I support it 100%. Here’s what’s going on around town… Spice Waala’s soft serve flavor this week? Turmeric…

Sandy Sanctuary
Mercer Island couple find bliss with a cabana on the beach
With 8,000 lakes, fifth most in the country, Washington is a happy hunting ground for waterfront lots. Highly popular Lake Chelan, the third-deepest lake in the United States, is not on the top of the list of affordable freshwater options, at least not anywhere near Chelan, where scarce waterfront residential lots start at $2 million….

Must List: Six Fun Things to Do in Seattle This Week
Apr 24 - Apr 30
Music in the air
Bring it, Seattle. You are stunning under blue skies. If you’re looking for something to check out between iced coffee runs, this art show about climate change looks incredible. The annual City Nature Challenge is back. Log a bug, animal, or plant and help scientists track biodiversity. The state’s trying to hit our bar tabs…

The Space Arranger
Kyle Gaffney and SkB take a holistic approach to building design
To say that Kyle Gaffney backed into a career in architecture may be a bit exaggerated, but he did get a late start. Gaffney, a cofounder and principal at Seattle architecture firm SkB, suffered a devastating knee injury and lost a soccer scholarship to the University of Puget Sound. Instead of college he went to…

Spot. Snap. Identify.
Help Seattle win a worldwide wildlife challenge just by taking pictures
Grab your phone, open your camera, and start looking for bugs. Or birds. Or that weird plant you always see but have no idea what it is. Seattle-Tacoma is back in for the world’s largest bioblitz, kicking off April 25. Around here, spotting an eagle during the afternoon commute or a strange mushroom on the…

Book Excerpt: Old White Man Writing
Seattle resident Joshua Gidding examines his own white privilege
In his book, Old White Man Writing, Seattle resident Joshua Gidding attempts to come to terms with his privilege. Gidding grapples with the rapidly changing cultural norms in 21st-century America while examining his own racial biases and prejudices. As Manhattan Book Review notes: “Old White Man Writing is an introspective deep dive into an eventful life…

Calling All Soccer Fans
FIFA needs Seattle volunteers
Seattle is about to host some of the biggest soccer matches in the world. This summer, the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup comes to town. It’s the largest club soccer tournament ever held in the U.S. — 32 teams, 63 matches, 12 cities. The tournament kicks off June 14 in Miami. Lumen Field gets six…

Glacial Expressions
Local scientist and painter Jill Pelto spotlights climate change in a multi-artist show at Slip Gallery
The divide between the arts and sciences is long-fostered and well-documented. From elementary school onward, children are often singled out for their penchant for math or artistic ability and guided toward classes — and later careers — that align with their right or left brain tendencies. For Jill Pelto — a local climate scientist, painter,…

Older Workers Thrive in Washington
State ranks No. 1 for older workers
A former colleague retired last year at age 64. He was, he says, “burned out” on everything from office politics to his difficulty understanding younger teammates. He had worked hard, saved money, and figured now was the time to begin to enjoy it. His father had died literally the day after cashing his first retirement…

The Pulse: Too Nice to Work
An elk who knows he's hot and a vending machine that understands us
It’s been offensively nice outside this week. We’re all acting like the past six months of rain never happened and won’t happen again. I love it. I had a colleague once tell me, “No one works past 3 p.m. on Fridays in the Northwest when the weather’s nice.” I’ll be observing that sacred tradition today….

Must List: Six Things to Do in Seattle This Week
Apr 17 - Apr 23
Phish, foodies, freedom
Hey, how’s it going? There’s a lot happening right now, nationally and here in Seattle, and not all of it’s easy to watch. Humanities Washington is fighting through federal budget cuts, trying to protect the kind of community programs we usually take for granted. Earth Day is coming up, but this year it feels heavier….

PCC Sets July Opening For Downtown Seattle Store
Small-format store was first announced last year
PCC Community Markets has cemented plans to open a small format store in downtown Seattle. The store, called PCC Corner Market, is the Seattle-based co-op’s first small format store. It will open in July at Fourth Avenue and Union Street in a portion of the footprint of PCC’s former traditional store that closed in January…

How Taproot Theatre Survived A Financial Crisis
Theatre is planning for its 50th birthday next year
Karen Lund vividly remembers that sinking feeling she had in the fall of 2023. That was when Lund, producing artistic director of Taproot Theatre Co., first realized that the financially strapped, midsized professional theatre in the Greenwood neighborhood might not survive. The theatre had already weathered the worst of the pandemic, but costs were mounting….
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